In mid-1830s Japan, Keisai Eisen was famous for his ribald writings and his lively woodblock prints. He was the natural choice to produce an expensive series of prints illustrating the Kisokaido, a highway from Edo to Kyoto, whose 69 post stations provided accommodation, refreshment, and entertainment, as well as uproarious tales of the road. Eisen's restless spirit apparently tired of the enormous project, however, and after the 24th image the prints were produced by the supreme landscape artist Utagawa Hiroshige, whose scenes contained more of the natural grandeur of the Kisokaido, and who produced some of his finest art for this project. The mixture of their work resulted in a striking portrait of daily life in 19th-century Japan. Reproduced from the finest surviving edition of the original manuscript, this book offers 70 superbly reproduced plates (11 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches) that teem with lyrical scenes and unique characters, from beggars and brawling men to naked porters and finely clothed women; the gentle humor of both artists imbues them all with remarkable vitality. Japanese print scholar and curator Sebastian Izzard comments on each image, offering insights into the artists' processes and the evolution of their collective masterwork, which changed in later printings with the wear or altering of the woodblocks.